Gary Glitter arrested in British sex-abuse case

By Anna Tomforde

Monday, October 29, 2012

LONDON - British police investigating the widening sex abuse scandal centered on the late BBC television host Jimmy Savile on Sunday arrested Gary Glitter, the 1970s glam-rock star and convicted pedophile.

Scotland Yard said Glitter, 68, was held at a London police station after a dawn arrest at an apartment in central London.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was questioned and then released on bail until the middle of December.

Glitter has been linked to the scandal surrounding Savile, whom Scotland Yard has described as one of the “most prolific sex offenders in recent history.”

Savile is alleged to have abused more than 300 children and young women over four decades, while working for the BBC. He died a year ago age 84.

Many alleged victims have since come forward with claims of abuse.

One witness, a former pupil at a girls’ school, said she had seen Glitter having sex with a schoolgirl in Savile’s dressing room on BBC premises in the 1970s, when the young girls were invited to one of Savile’s TV shows.

She said the room was “packed” with people and Savile, who was present when the abuse was taking place, “laughed about it.”

Glitter was jailed for four months in Britain in 1999 for downloading child pornography, before being jailed for child sex offences in Vietnam. The singer now lives in London.

Glitter’s music career peaked in the 1970s, with hits such as “Rock and Roll Part 2.”